It seems that the 16th is more of a party than St Paddy’s day here. We watched the eleven o’clock news at nine, (we don’t change to DST till the first of April) then headed to the square and boy oh boy was it packed with Mexicans, you could hardly move, let alone walk around.
There must have been five Mariachi bands and three (I don’t know what you call them) BOOM bands. They consist of a huge bass drum and cymbals, a tuba, a snare drum, a trumpet or two and maybe a couple of clarinets or sax. Here is a link from the festivities. http://youtu.be/ROYjapAg9qo . I cannot lay claim to this video. With my hearing, all I can hear is the drums and tuba, NOT my favourite combo. With all these bands playing at once, and probably 2000 people all yelling to be heard, the word deafening comes to mind.
Betty and I work our way towards the church where the castillo is set up, wow this one is bigger than the ones we have had previously and has contraptions strung across the street, so we can expect something pretty special.
Hard to get a good picture of something this big at 11;30 at night.
And special,,, it was.
Just a few of the folks in the square, notice the rockets heading towards us, on the left.
After the castillo finished there were fireworks set off from the roof of the church and then several 500mm shells sent from mortars in a roped off area no bigger than 20 square feet, in the middle of the crowd. When I was doing the fireworks, we had to set up at least 200 feet from the audience and anybody inside that area had to be authorized and wear special clothing and hearing protection, I gotta remember “this ain’t Amway, it’s Mexway,”,, LOL.
One of the "Toros" heading our way.
Of course the evening wouldn’t be complete without a “Toro” or two, (remember the ones with the rockets on them?),,, well how about eight of them running through the crowd. We are chicken, so we run across the street and still the Boop gets hit in the neck, fortunately it was just a spent cardboard cartridge. I just can’t figure how come somebody has never been seriously hurt with these things, but the most I ever heard of, is a singed shirt or pant leg.
It all adds to the experience we love so much about living the Mexican way.
Home about midnight,,, but,,, the rodeo is on, and the speakers are aimed at our bedroom again and sleep doesn’t come till about 2 AM.
And now we only have three more weeks of fiesta,,, LOL.
Dan
thetravellingoz 